We Own the Night

The year is 1988 and one family is torn between doing the right thing and living a selfish, pleasure filled life.

We Own the Night features the two Grusinsky brothers who couldn't be more polar opposites. Bobby, who goes by his mother's maiden name, Green (Joaquin Phoenix) is the manager of a popular nightclub in New York City. He is living the high life with tons of friends, a smokin' hot woman by his side, Amada, and was taken in as a son by the clubs Russian owner. Pleasure is the leading contributor in Bobby's decision making.

Joe Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg) is a Captain in the NYPD and is following in his father's footsteps, Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall), the Chief of Police. Joe has a wife, three children and is living a life of duty and respect.

It feels like the family is growing further apart be the minute, especially since Bobby hides his family ties from everyone he knows. The gap between them grows exponentially when Joe leads a narcotics team into Bobby's club and starts searching for the source of a new drug that has been hitting the streets. Arresting a few people on minor possession charges, including Bobby, turns out to be a life altering move for everyone involved. Burt sits Bobby down and tries to make him understand what is happening to the city around them. It is a war, Police against the Russian Mafia, crime and drugs sweeping the city and Bobby is right in the middle of the two worlds. He must choose in the end who he will stand up with. For the time being he seems to choose the life he has become accustomed to, a life of pleasure.

Joe gets shot as a warning for the arrests and this acts as a wake up call to Bobby. After listening to his boss's nephew, Vadim Nezhinsky (Alex Veadov) boast about shooting Joe and how the Chief of Police is next, Bobby's world gets turned upside down. He decides to go into the drug dealing world with a wire to help the police get the evidence they need to stop the entire operation and put Vadim behind bars. The plan goes down successfully, except for the fact that they didn't find out how the drugs are being sold, and Bobby and Amada (Eva Mendes) have to go into protective custody until the trial. All seems well in the world, however, nothing is ever that easy. Vadim escapes and is set on finding and killing Bobby for his betrayal. After a near escape with death, Bobby is faced with another choice, continue hiding and let the police find Vadim, or stand up with his family and fight.

This movie starts off big. It has lots of loud music, colourful characters, drugs, lust and violence. However, this pace is not continued through the entire film. It slows down a lot and I was a little disappointed. It was a good movie but they could have done a lot more with it. I was also expecting a bigger fight scene at the end of the movie.

Most of the big name actors did a fantastic job in their roles, especially Phoenix (Walk the Line) and Eva Mendes (Ghost Rider). I liked the struggle that their characters went through while they were in hiding. Showing how hard of a decision it would be to stand up and do the right thing.

Final Words: Saw it. Liked it. Joaquin Phoenix is an excellent actor.